Engineering graduates for industry - Royal Academy of Engineering

During the running of the project, the teams have a formal meeting every week with their facilitator and each member
of the team takes a turn to chair this meeting, which is assessed. The teams produce specific reports for each
component of the project, plus a summary report. The students are required to append their percentage contribution
to each report and these reports are assessed by the respective experts. All of the assessments are moderated to try to
eliminate discrepancies and scoring differences between facilitators. There is a strong peer assessment component to
the projects.
Effective practice exemplar 7: student-led activities at Imperial
Student-led activities are organised by the engineering students themselves. There are active student societies for many
of the engineering disciplines and many of these additional activities arise out of, or are supported by, these societies.
Many of the student-led activities provide a high level of experience-led learning and involve intensive and extensive
organisational, management and communication capabilities.
The El Salvador project 58
A group of around 11 Civil Engineering student volunteers makes an annual six week trip to El Salvador to involve
themselves in construction projects such as building earthquake-safe housing and schools in the country. Students
have to pay £400 and source the remaining required funding themselves each year for materials and accommodation,
supported by the department. The additional funding generally comes from industry and alumni, but recently a group
was awarded a JP Morgan Good Venture Award. Other similar expeditions go to different countries.
Racing Green 59
This is a project to design, build and race in international competition a zero-emissions car. It was spearheaded in
2006/07 in response to the predicted need of automotive companies for graduates specifically trained in these new
technologies. A small core group of 13 students was
assembled and, with seed funding of £30,000 from
EnVision, they made a fuel cell powered go-kart over
the summer vacation in 2007. This was well received
by the students and a further £70,000 was obtained
from EnVision to build a second generation go-kart for
Formula Zero 60 and also to build a hydrogen fuel cell
racing car to enter into the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers’ (IMechE) Formula Student competition. In
2008/09 this attracted 100 students from eight
departments. In order to make the activity sustainable
it has been handed over to the students who raise the
funds (about £100,000 per year) and run the project
themselves, reporting on a monthly basis to a Steering
Group of academics from each of the departments.
Students participate in Racing Green on either a
voluntary basis or as part of the curriculum.
Perceived benefits
Involvement in student-led activities demonstrates key qualities of graduates to potential employers. Proactive studentled
activities can provide direct benefits to departments too. For example, the Department of Materials no longer takes
students on visits to industry but sponsors the Materials student society (MatSoc) to organise such visits. The various
alumni associations are often financially supportive of student-led activities. The students benefit from the funding and
the alumni associations benefit by recruiting students once they graduate.
Challenges
Involvement in these sorts of activities costs students both time and money. This may put some off getting involved,
or only attract the most motivated.
58
www.elsalvadorproject.org.uk/
59
www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/racinggreen/
60
www.formulazero.nl/
26 The Royal Academy of Engineering